Transcript: Vitamin Supplements Worth Taking

In terms of longevity, though, one last supplement. Vitamin D. Who votes shorter life? Who votes same life? Who votes longer life? Vitamin D seems to be the only supplement, that will actually make he average person live a longer life.

I just want to note the two vitamins that you can’t get from a healthy diet, and vitamin D is one of them. Vitamin D is made mostly by animals such as yourself when you’re exposed to sunlight.

The tiny amounts added to calf milk or soy milk is too little for optimal health. There’s only two ways to truly get enough—sun or supplements, and it depends where you live.

Don’t worry it’s all on the handout. Basically, no matter how long you sunbathe nude in December and January in most of the country the sun’s rays are at such an angle that you’ll make zero vitamin D, so the latest science supports supplemental D during the Winter above LA/Dallas/Atlanta/Cairo, or for anyone anywhere any time not getting enough sun.

All right it’s time for a lightning round question: First person to shout out the right answer wins a CD right off the bat. And before I give you the question I'm going to give you the answer. Anyone?

OK, the question is: Who can tell me the only other vitamin not made by plants? Yes, vitamin B12. It's not made by animals either, though. It's made by microbes, little bacteria that blanket the earth. These bacteria grow in the guts of some of the animals people eat, and so their bodies can be sources of B12 for those eating less than humane diets.

We used to probably get all the B12 we needed drinking out of mountain streams or well water, but now we chlorinate our water supply to kill off any bacteria. So we don't get a lot of B12 in our water anymore—we don't get a lot of cholera either. So that's a good thing.

But in our sanitized modern world, studies continue to show that vegetarians and vegans are simply not getting enough vitamin B12. What’s the big deal if we don’t get enough B12? What’s the worst that can happen? Well, let me review the medical literature in just the last year. I like to call it my B12 deficiency, House of Horrors.

So, for example, you happened to flip open last Summer’s issue of the journal Nutrition you’d see titles like this: “Irreversible subacute sclerotic combined degeneration of the spinal cord in a vegan subject.” And yes, it really is as bad as it sounds. If you look close here 57 year old man “member of a vegan cult.”

Can you blame the doctor, though? Look what nonB12 supplemented veganism did to this poor guy. Rotted his spinal cord from the inside out. They immediately started him on B12 and he got better—he’s still paralyzed and won’t walk for the rest of his life, but at least he’s not dead. No wonder nutritionists and doctors are skeptical about vegetarian diets after reading case reports like this! And it’s so easy. It’s SO easy to get your B12, either B12 fortified foods or supplements. Again it’s all on the handout.

For those of you who eat vegetarian but are not eating B12 fortified foods every day or taking a B12 supplement every day, or every week, you are certainly free to do whatever you want.

It’s not my business, if, as a young vegetarian woman, for example, your toes turn purple. Or if you develop a polymorphic maculopapular lesion--it’s a free country. If you want your nails to turn black and your hair to turn white. (They gave her some B12 and you can see her hair starting to grow back normal—B12 also evidently makes you put on lipstick)

You can even, just for kicks, be like this 38 year vegan guy who got misdiagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, get yourself thrown in a psych ward because of the hallucinations and psychotic delusions triggered by your B12 deficiency. All, up to you.

But , not taking B12 in pregnancy, is not OK. Infantile seizures, no fun. Vegan babies should be a lot of things, , but floppy is not one of them. It is these negligent vegans that have led this year to an official pronouncement from the European Society for Pediatric Nutrition: “Infants and young children should not be fed a vegan diet.” That’s totally ridiculous—what they should have just said take your B12.

Everyone, not just vegans. New studies on the bioavailability of B12 suggests that animal products are not great sources. Less than 4% of the B12 in scrambled eggs, for example, is absorbed, according to these new studies. And in fact, in modern society, only those eating fortified foods like breakfast cereal or supplements seems to getting enough for optimum health, so there has been a renewed call for all grain products in the U.S. to be fortified with B12 like they do over in Israel. So, by law, all bread, all pasta, would have to have B12 and then we can finally close the door on my house of horrors, and never have this problem again.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.

“Researchers at Newcastle University in England, led by Dr. Georg Lietz, found 47 percent of volunteer group of 62 women carried a genetic variation that prevented their bodies from effectively converting beta-carotene into vitamin A.”

If this is the case, it implies nearly half of vegan women do not have the enzymes that convert carotenes to vitamin A – should we be concerned? Do some people simply require this vitamin preformed (or by supplement)?

Michael Greger M.D.

I assume you’re talking about this study? That was over ten years ago. According to a review published last year, “Methods to assess the bioavailability and bioconversion of provitamin A carotenoids have advanced significantly in the past 10 y….” Though the conversion is not as efficient as we used to think, there is no need to consume preformed vitamin A according to the Institute of Medicine. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to beta-carotene containing foods! That’s one of the reasons I recommend we eat dark green leafy vegetables every day.

jen.ferdinand

Hi Dr. Greger. Thank you so much for creating this site. It is very much appreciated.

I noticed the bottle of Vitamin D in this video was Vitamin D2. I have read that D3 is the better source for us(colecalciferol). Can you please clarify?

Many thanks,

Michael Greger M.D.

Such a good question. Taken daily in doses under 2000IU, vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol) appear bioequivalent (meaning they both work just as well in your body). However if your physician suggests you take large intermittent doses (such as 50,000IU weekly, then D3 is probably superior).

Khari

Vitamin D2 is Vegan….Vitamin D3 is not Vegan….am I correct?

Lindsey

Correct, but there is a new vegan D3 on the market derived from mushrooms!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1850995636 Martina Yank Miškić

Actually,it’s from lichen not mushrooms.

Israel Navas Duran

Actually, a lichen is part fungus and the other part either algae or cyanobacteria.

RobiDon

My understanding is that currently vitamin D2 is the only FDA approved version available by prescription in the 50,000IU doses. I was diagnosed as being deficient in vitamin D and have been taking this form for awhile. Now I take one every two weeks, except when I harvest D from the sun. I don’t know if you can get this amount in non-prescription versions. I am successfully maintaining my D levels using D2, and because I’m a wfpg vegan I am happy to have a non-animal source.

jen.ferdinand

Thank you so much for clarifying this, as I often see D2 in supplement powders and have not understood why it is used.

DanM15

What would you recommend as a minimum dose of B6, B12 and Vitamin D for someone following a plant based diet?

Toxins

Hello Dan! I have studied nutrition extensively and can answer your question. Firstly, a variety of plant foods have significant sources of b6 and therefore is unnecessary to supplement. Regarding b12, you can find rather high doses in supplements, some containing %5,000 to %16,000 of your daily value. Its of no concern though to worry about getting too much. If you take one of these supplements once a week it will suffice since what you cant use is simply peed out. Also note that vitamin b12 is used every day in extremely low amounts so once a week will replenish your supply. Regarding vitamin d, you should take 2,000 – 4,000 IUs of Vitamin D2 or D3. I take a deva 2,400 IU vitamin d2 supplement. In experiments, these two types of vitamin d proved to be nearly equivalent so do not concern yourself with what type of vitamin d as long as you get it. Just note that vitamin d2 is vegan but there is a new vitamin d3 derived from mushrooms that is also vegan.

Khari

What vegan options are there for vegans to get Vitamin D from besides supplements and the sun?

Alexandra Georgiadis

There are some vegan-friendly foods that are fortified with Vitamin D such as breakfast cereals and soy milk. Make sure to check the nutrition facts on the food label. But remember if you live in an area where you may not be getting enough sunlight, or if you don’t get enough sun exposure, fortified foods may not be an adequate source of vitamin D. As the video mentions supplementing with vitamin D might be a good idea. You might also be interested in this video, http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/vitamin-d-pills-vs-tanning-beds/, comparing two Vitamin D sources. More information is also available on NutritionFacts.org regarding vitamin supplemention which you may want to check out (since not all vitamin supplements are beneficial) such as this short one http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/are-vitamin-c-pills-good-for-you/ ,which mentions vitamin D along with E, A and C. Hope this helps. Good luck!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1047747197 Lisa O’Neill

If vitamin B12 is stored in the liver, then why do we get it from eating meat (rather than eating actual liver)?

Anya

After being absorbed in the small intestine & circulated by the blood, Vitamin B12 is stored throughout the tissue of animals – including the liver. Luckily as we have seen by this video, we don’t need to depend on animal products for our Vitamin B12!

Israel Navas Duran

Liver has higher concentration of vitamin B12 than other organs. This is also the case about vitamin D, A and E, up to that point that eating liver of certain animals can be toxic or even lethal (e.g., seal, polar bear).

vegantruth

How much Vitamin D is too much? Whats the recommended supplementation? Is there any science to Vitamin D as a cure for the common cold?

SArmstrong

You can get too much vitamin D; since it is a fat soluble vitamin it can accumulate in the body to toxic levels. If you take significantly more than the RDA (which most agree is too low at 400 IUs daily) it may be wise to get your blood levels checked after supplementing for a few months. At doses more than 10,000 IUs daily there may be an increased risk of kidney stones. In the Nutrition Facts video 4,000 IUs daily in winter is mentioned; I think the chance of toxicity is unlikely at this dose. There are anecdotal reports of vitamin D supplementation preventing or reducing colds in winter. I know of two randomized studies that did NOT show vitamin D reducing upper respiratory infections ( Epidemiol Infect. 2009;137(10):1396 and J Infec Dis. 2010;202(5)809 ).

http://www.facebook.com/ve3tru Peter Trumpickas

I would look into that some more, what exactly constitutes a toxic dose of vitamin D has yet to be determined. Though it is possible this amount may vary with the individual. In fact latest studies show the toxic levels to be actually much higher.Published cases of toxicity involve intake of ≥ 40000 IU (1000 mcg) per day. In two cases an intake of over 2,000,000 IU per day. This over-dramatization of the toxic effects of vitamin D can only do harm scaring people away.

RobiDon

Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., M.D. says in his book, The Vitamin D Solution, that while we can get sunburned from too much exposure to the sun, we cannot get too much vitamin D from the sun.

Lisa21012

It was recommended to get cyanocobalamin but those are supplemented with folic acid which we shouldn’t be taking. I like taking it daily so I’m looking for 250 mcg. Is there a brand of B-12 that anyone likes?

How much of the body needs to be exposed to get “15-30 min mid-day sun”?

Toxins

Hello PeterGerry!

This is an excellent question! Please see my response to GregV at the bottom of this page http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/vegan-epidemic/ describing many aspects of vitamin d including how much you need to get on your body for it to be effective.

Let me know if you have further questions!

evanbrand

What foods/protocol can reverse gray hair (or revert gray hair to original color); what foods/protocol can revert hair thinning/balding? ( I saw 4:13 in this video, and was curious if there are other suggestions).

Stacia

Hi Dr. Greger,

I just watched your newest video and it was fantastic as usual. The segment about the adult requirement of 2000 units/day for Vitamin D was interesting and helpful. Can you please tell me what a child’s requirement is likely to be? We have a three year old.

Thank you,

Stacia Mesleh

Michael Greger M.D.

I’m so glad you’re finding the videos useful. The official (Institute of Medicine) recommendation for those over 1 year of age is 600 IU a day of vitamin D. In two weeks I’m going to be rolling out a series of vitamin D videos from my volume 6 DVD–stay tuned! (if you can’t wait, I have a special holiday sale on my Latest in Nutrition DVDs–all proceeds to charity, of course).

tduke

would eating mushrooms daily be just as good as supplementation or better since they are so high in vit D?

Can you please recommend? Also if you think cyanocobalamin is bad can you please update your site to have B12 recommendations for Methylcobalamin just for the benefit of community.

http://www.facebook.com/betsy.gaines.50 Betsy Gaines

Fortified foods like cereal and almond milk use unmethylated forms of b-12 which contributes to b-12 deficiency in folks like me with an mthfr defect. It is supposed that 40% of the population has this defect, so fortifying cannot be the answer for us.

Stephen Lucker Kelly

Upside down mushrooms soak up Vitamin D too! :-) So if you do this then you will also get lots of vitamin D too! :-)

Arjan: Mushrooms are a fungus. And yes, turning them upside down helps them to make the vitamin D. Check out the following link and notice the paragraph that I highlight below.

http://www.fungi.com/blog/items/place-mushrooms-in-sunlight-to-get-your-vitamin-d.html “Here is a simple experiment we did one summer afternoon in Kamilche Point, Washington. We compared several forms of organically grown shiitake mushrooms, which had starting level of 100 IU/100 grams. We compared the vitamin D levels of three sets of mushrooms, all from the same crop. The first was grown and dried indoors. The second set was dried outdoors in the sunlight with their gills facing down. The third set of mushrooms was dried outdoors in the sunlight with their gills facing upwards for full sun exposure. The most vitamin D was found in shiitake dried with gills up that were exposed to sunlight for two days, six hours per day. The vitamin D levels in these mushrooms soared from 100 IU/100 grams to nearly 46,000 IU/100 grams (see chart). Their stems, though, produced very little vitamin D, only about 900 IU. Notably, vitamin D levels dropped on the third day, probably due to over-exposure to UV.”

Hope that helps.

Arjan den Hollander.

Very thorough answer, thank you for taking the effort of writing it. Informative.

This explanation actually makes a lot of sense thrue the action of exposing a vastly larger surface area to uv radiation.

This is off course something else completely to just simply turning mushrooms on their hoods and expect vitamin D to appear as if by magic. What I took from reading the OP.

But tnx Thea, good stuff!!

Mark Hazell

What about DHA? Since DHA only comes from fish (and some sea vegetables) shouldn’t we vegans be concerned with getting enough? Another thing is that I think I’m not getting enough calcium, what sources do you recommend for those? I’ve been taking a supplement for that as well and would like to cut down on those supplements.

Israel Navas Duran

Sea vegetables? I think you have the wrong idea of what dinoflagellates actually are.

lovestobevegan

Hi Dr. Greger, The link to your blog “Multivitamins and Mortality” seems to be broken. Take care, Michelle

Ariel Levitsky

Hey Michelle,

The defective link has been replaced with Are Multivitamins Good For You?

Thanks for letting us know!

Brian Bohmueller

Sounds like a well researched video. Glad to see the (verily unregulated) multivitamin craze (funded by big pharma) isn’t being embraced by sensible Vism. As a new vegetarian mindfully moving toward veganism, i still eat vegetarian dairy products and local, “free range” eggs, so I don’t think I need to be concerned about B12 supplements yet. I’m due for a physical soon…are there tests I can request to confirm I have ample, complete nutrition?

I supplement for vitamin B-12 because I do not want to increase my blood cholesterol by regularly adding animal proteins to my diet. That is part of the reason I eat vegan. The other reason is that eating animal protein increases pain and inflammation in my body, which is even more noticeable since fracturing my lumbar spine.

Arun Mukherjee

Dr. Greger, the video does not tell me what would be a safe daily dosage of Vitamin B12. I recently heard a radio show which suggested to me that I might be taking too much (1000mcg). Would appreciate clarity on this important matter.

tony

I would rather eat savoury nutritional yeast (tastes good) as a whole food rather than a supplement and the brand I have is lotus and one teaspoon is 500% of your daily b12 plus heaps of other b group nutrients as well.

Susan

I give my kitten nutritional yeast to coat her certified organic kibble every day as a way to reduce fleas. She loves it and has zero fleas.

The container I use is 10 years old and has spent most of its life in the freezer. Does anyone know if Kal brand is genetically engineered to resist Roundup?

mbglife

But you don’t mean to suggest that nutritional yeast naturally contains B12, right? It only contains what is added to it, since nutritional yeast otherwise contains none.

Manm

Hello Dr. Michael Greger! Are the B12 supplementation and B12 fortified foods really the only safe vegan ways to get that vitamin? Isn’t yeast a good source of B12? Much people who thinks they are omnivore says the only way to get it is by eating animals… some admits we can take it by fortified foods (sometimes forgetting about supplementation too but, anyway…) and a few people talks about yeast, spirulina… Well, my doubt is: if yeast is a good (and natural) source of B12, since they and bacteria are the only ones who truly produce it, it is our natural way to get B12, isn’t? It makes me confused because supplementation and fortified foods actually are not natural sources, if we look closer, up because: 1) Men has to produce it (it isn’t naturally present in nature); 2) Their production is not sustainable because of the plastic/glass bottles and all the artificial things used to its production and transport, so it has an impact in nature (significant or not) ; 3) The reason of the cheap production of cyanocobalamin is its (little) content of cyanide. I am on the 10th grade, and, my school’s biology manual says yeast are present in places rich in sugars and on the peels of juicy fruits such as red grapes, what lets me pre-conclude that eating those fruits is the natural way to us to get B12. Can clarify my doubt?

steven bucelato

thank you for all your info!! my question is, if i cant find b12 in pill form but i have found it injectable,- bottles of 1000mg,is that ok?¿ thank you

Grace

Are there any other supplements that you recommend for vegans or any lab tests that should be done to check for deficiencies ? In the past (in your video about a 40 year old vegan dying from a heart attack), you also recommended DHA for pregnant breastfeeding women and recommendations for vegans including calcium, iodine, iron, selenium, zinc, and omega 3s (from flax seeds). The flax seed supplementation seems rather easy, but the other minerals may be more difficult to regulate. What do you think of the over the counter vegan vitamin supplements such as “Deva”?

Sarah V Lucas

Supplementing all bread (in Australia, don’t know about the US) with folate dramatically reduced incidence of birth defects in children. I think mandatory grain supplementation with B12 would be a good idea considering that it is getting harder and harder for anyone on any diet to meet their requirements.

PeggyH1951

Loving all your videos. This one came just in time for me, as I’ve recently been diagnosed as D deficient (21.5 on my blood work, with a bare minimum of 25 recommended, and 50 even better). I’m a no-oil vegan and already take B12. Recently I read that we should always take D3 with K2. Leafy greens aren’t enough, as the K1 in them doesn’t easily convert to K2 in the body. I have found a supplement that provides d3, k2, calcium and magnesium. But the calcium makes me nervous, given recent studies. Any ideas?

Is correct consuming these supplements? Or am I just spoiling the money and health?

I also use other substances which are foods, not supplements, like Tumeric Curcumin, currently in capsule, 50mg (95% curcuminoids), but I will go to consume it in biological powder.

I am thinking consume Peruvian Maca powder, bio.

I appreciate with all my heart your possible help.

I have published your work on social networks and will continue to do so, with all my enthusiasm.

My thanks for the good you do to all people who have a little common sense in his head.

Thank you so much.

Danie

Hi Dr. Greger,

I am eating a whole-foods plant-based diet but am unsure whether it is balanced and sufficient enough to get all nutrients and vitamins. Would you recommend taking a multivitamin? Also, would you recommend taking a prenatal vitamin before and during pregnancy? If not, what supplements do you recommend during pregnancy and how much of each? Would you recommend the same while breastfeeding?

I have been looking everywhere for an answer but cannot find a satisfying one that answers all aspects. Since your videos are always spot on, I thought you would be the one to ask.

Thank you so much!

Jim Fitzpatrick

Dr. Greger, My thumb nail grows with a split and the corners of my mouth are raw. Am I deficient in B12, D or what? Thank you for your wonderful videos and articles and hopefully the answer to my lack.

Gene Auger

So other than B12 and Vitamin D all other vitamins are useless does this include Co enzyme Q!0? With depleted soils and chemicals how can we get the nutrition needed as organic is not always avaiable?